Thursday, November 14, 2019

Osinbanjo charges policemen to stop extra-judicial killings

Taiwo Jimoh
 The Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, yesterday charged policemen to do everything humanly possible to respect everyone’s right and stop extrajudicial killings.


The vice president said that this reiterating the federal government’s determination to end impunity within the Nigeria Police Force.

Osinbajo made this declaration while declaring open a three-day conference and retreat for senior police officers in the country, with the theme: ‘Repositioning the force for the Challenges of Effective Policing in the 21st Century,’ held at Eko Hotels and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Osinbajo, who represented President Muhammadu Buhari, said that excessive use of force by the police must also be discouraged.

The VP said: “We must arrest internet fraudsters and protect the rights of the hardworking Nigerian youths. We must also prevent misguided elements from destroying the image of the country. There are many cases of extrajudicial killings in the force; it must stop because the image of the police must be protected. It is the duty of senior police officers and those in strategic positions in the force to ensure that whoever contravenes the ethics of the force should be dealt with. We want our police to be better, and one we can be proud of. The service of the police is something we cannot do without, including the services of other law enforcement agencies. We have police stations everywhere. That is why police should expect public scrutiny and criticism. We want our police to be better and one we can be proud globally."

According to Osinbajo, twine security challenge was facing the Nigerian society. These are terrorism and banditry.

“In the last one year over 2,348 armed robbery suspects were arrested, 412,000 kidnappers, 612,000 kidnappers, 64,000 kidnapped victims were rescued and 634,000 suspects were arrested.”

Speaking at the event, the Inspector-General of the Police, Mr. Mohammed Adamu, said the intention of the Nigeria Police Force was to use the forum to undertake a holistic evaluation of the current internal security threats and crime dynamics in the country.

He further explained that the retreat was in furtherance of, “our policing vision, which emphasises capacity building as a pathway to enhancing effective police service delivery in the country.”

He added: “I firmly believe that with the constant engagement of managers and consistent training and retraining of personnel of the force across all ranks, the expectation of the federal government and indeed the nation at large for a police force that is knowledge-driven, rule of law-guided, community-oriented, technology compliance and intelligence led shall be achieved. The programme is expected to avail participants’ police officers of the opportunity to draw on expertise of season facilitators and rich professional knowledge of the array of police officers."

The Minister of Police Affairs, Mohammad Dan, said the conference was expected to proffer solution to the numerous security challenges in the country.

" We want our police to be better and be proud of. The service of the police is something we cannot do without and other law enforcement agencies,we have police stations everywhere. That is why police should expect public scrutiny and criticism, because we want our police to be better and be proud of in Nigeria and globally."

He added that, aside from terrorism, we are also contending with banditary.  In the last one year over 2,348 armed robbery suspects were arrested, four hundred and twelve thousand kidnappers, six hundred right hundred and six four thousand kidnapped victims were rescued and six hundred and thirty four thousand other suspects were arrested.


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